mississippi river banks

, originally uploaded by bern j.

coit tower

, originally uploaded by bern j.

tina and transamerica

tina and transamerica, originally uploaded by bern j.

blue anels up close and personal

blue anels up close and personal, originally uploaded by bern j.

sunset over the bay

sunset over the bay, originally uploaded by bern j.

trip to san francisco

work for a few days

ten u of a cats for a few days

had a great time

blue angels were in town

so was budwiser

so nice to catch up

have not seen some

of these folks for almost

three years

hope to see them soon

flickr site

since my trip is over

i've decided to keep the blog going

now for a different purpose

all about photos

places i've been

shots i've taken

check em out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bernbartos/

the best of

our last night in amsterdam cait and i sat down to do the best of… and some worst of… these are just our opinions from our experiences...

best place to stay: hotel in amsterdam (we splurged a little towards the end)

worst place to stay: accommodations wise it was switzerland… rome was pretty shady too, but we had a great time in both places

best meal: cinque terre (pesto ravioli and scampi)

worst meal: some agentinian steak place in amsterdam

best guy we met: guy named alex from australia, met him in rome and hung out with him for two days

worst guy we met: a random in a bar in cinque terre, very intense with a interesting past

best girl we met: three lads from redding, england... drinking games and walking the streets of rome at 3AM

worst girl we met: waitress in cinque terre, did not like americans

best views: tie between swizerland and cinque terre, both equally gorgeous

worst views: rome

best train ride: coming into interlaken, mountains on two sides and lakes on the other two

worst train ride: think we already covered this one

best train station: rome

worst train station: milan

best overall people: switzerland

worst overall people: paris

best weather: interlaken

worst weather:amsterdam

best activity: white water rafting in switzerland

worst activity: audio tour of the ruins by the coliseum

what we learned

few thoughts on the trip now that i have had a day to rest and reflect...

-jet lag's a bitch

-patience is still a virtue

-trying new things is usually worth it

-take time to slow down (smell the roses if you will)

-cait and i are very similar people, its interesting to spend three straight weeks with someone, you learn a lot

-big cities all smell like crap no matter where you are

-i love where i live and the people that are in my life (not really a lesson but a greater appreciation)

-things we saw everywhere

ice cream/gelato stands

coffee shops

french fries

mcdonalds

pizzerias

irish pubs

-personal space does not exist in Europe

-everyone knows a little English (interesting to watch a japanese and italian person talk and engligh was the way they did it)

-some parts of europe really do close for a one or two months at a time for holiday

-washing clothes in your sink is not fun

-we only saw one mexican restaurant and that was in amsterdam and that was a steak/mexican place

-on the plane writing this and "closing time" came on the ipod…

very fitting

rain

four straight days of rain was how we ended our trip

we were ok with it after ten days of 90 plus weather

it did eventually suck to walk around in

our stay was nice and relaxing

each day consisting of a mid afternoon siesta

went to the van gough museum

anne frank house (bigger than i expected)

flower market

red light district (could write a whole post about that area)

and walked around a lot

ate some very good food

drank some good beer

overall a good last stop

i am now home

cait has gone on to ireland for school

i am back at work

just under 500 emails to get through

good stuff

few more posts coming tonight or tomorrow

more to come

i will be posting a few more entries once i get settled back to real life... stay tuned

the last stop

few pics of amsterdame

been raining since we got here

we dont mind

the train ride

for the sake of time i will stray from my normal style; i will still right one long run on sentence, but with more words and less spaces... i will preface this with a few observations cait and i have noticed about the train system in europe; there is no security when boarding a train, none. there are no rules of the road or guides to help you navigate through all the unspoken rules; but they are effcient and relatively inexpensive. some other items i should note; for those who have never been on an overnight train, picture a small cabin with three seats on each side that all fold down to make three beds on each side; three deck bunk bed on each side if you are looking at it; when we boarded we had no idea how this worked, when the beds should be flipped and who should be doing it.

and now the story...

cait and i board twenty minutes early, a young man sits next to cait and i with no luggage for a 14 or something hour train ride... odd; we say hello and he returns our pleasntries; train leaves twenty minutes late, no big deal. since cait and i know nothing about this type of train, we ask him if he knows, he responds with i have ticket. ok so he does not know english as much as we thought. a bit later cait asks where he is from, he ignores her a few times. he then proceeds to read the same page of the koran over and over again, starting singing something in arabic within in like a one foot radius of cait and i; now we have never seen anything like this before so it may be normal so be it, but it kind of freaked us out...

later an older gentleman joins us; welcomes himself to our cabin by yelling at us in italian about how we can help him place his suitcase in the right spot; after five minutes, he does it himself and is frustrated with us and lets us know it, in italian of course; we shake our heads; now this guy has been smoking two packs a day since he was 12, so he looks and smells like it, not pleasant to say the least...

by now its 930 and both guys are dozing off, so they old guys starts to gesture at us to put the beds down so he and the other guy can sleep; we oblige and the two guys take off to somewhere; the young guy comes back an hour later and goes to sleep, the other guys paces outside our cabin for a good two hours until almost 1145 then finally comes in and lays down; so very confusing...

we are all trying to fall asleep to the sweet smell of ashtray and we make it to our first stop, (side note: we gave our passports and tickets to the conductor when we boarded so he would not wake us in the middle of the night, totally normal, but the young guys passport is pink, again strange) at about midnight we hear pounding on the door next to us and someone yell police; the young guy bolts out of our room, next time we see him he's in police custody getting his things and being escorted off the train with three others from our car...

during the series of next six stops police at each station boarded our train, knocked on our door and asked where that dude was...

now again this may be normal, but for a first timer here it was quite intense at momments...

cait and i got very little sleep while worrying about who was in our cabin, waking every few hours to the police and breathing ashtray through a blanket or pillow...

needless to say likely our last overnight train

but we have arrived safely in amsterdam

it is rainy

when in rome

cait and i are killing time in an internet cafe before our train

so here are a few pictures from rome

the police force around the bus i mentioned in the last post



gilmore this one is for you

we did not use this travel agency

i just batted it to the ground (inside joke for all you other readers)

flower outside the forum

the colleseum

st. peter's

cait and i inside st. peter's

cait inside st. peter's

they must have loved us

not too sure what this was

but it looked super cool at night

thats all for now

we will be shortly getting on a sixteen hour train to paris

followed by a four hour train to amsterdam

as you can imagine

we are super excited

we are glad to see the dollar gaining strengh againist the dollar recently

makes our purchases a little less painful

some other notes on rome

it is probably the dirtiest city we have been

and it smells just about everywhere you go

the food has been good

but we are excited to try out some new things in holland

we have learned our lesson from paris

and learned to use the metro right away to save some walking

our shady hostel decide to give us counterfit money one night

that was an interesting conversation when i tried to use the same money they gave us

and they told me it was fake

lets just say it didnt go well

but we got some other money that was real, supposedly

rome is burning

well not literally

but its hot

we arrived sunday

just in time for the rome-naples soccer match (the fans do not like each other)

picture armstrong-cooper day times a million

as we headed to meet our friend amber for dinner

we ran into thirty plus buses filled with naples fans

each escorted by twenty of so police in riot gear

as we passed the train station there was actually tons of people running

running from the train station in case something happens

like the kind of running when there is a fire

it was crazy to say the least

we then run into a 10k that is going through the city

making us a little late for dinner

monday was spent in vatican city with some new friends

saw JPII's tomb

sistine chapel

st. peter's (its huge)

we took a guided tour

learned a great deal

next to trevi fountain

today was spent at the colosseum (also huge)

and impressive

our feet hate us

the evenings have been spent at the bar in our hostel

by now we have met at least half the people in this place

its a lot of fun

we introduced them to faded eights last night

kostka would have been proud

we have been hanging out with lots of aussies and brits

(nerd, i learned some interesting things about the kangaroo you might be intereseted in)

we decided to spend an extra day in rome

and grab a bunch of trains to make it to amsterdam a day earlier than planned

getting to prague proved too difficult

next post will come from holland

go twins

miss ya'll at home

five towns

tonight is our last night here

and we are sad to say goodbye

this place has a certain way of slowing you down

it was a well deserved resting place

couple of days on the beach


another amazing hike

all during sunny ninety degree days

funny that this weekend is tradionally the last weekend of summer

and we are lucky enough to sepnd it here

again we met some interesting folks

had drinks and dinner with them last night

cait ended up behind the bar for a second straight night

gotta love free drinks

so far the food has been the best of the trip

we are staying in some guys guest house i read about

honor system bar

one euro beer and wine

by far the best deal in town

tomorrow we are off to visit a friend in rome for a few days

please tell the grandparents we will say hi to the pope for them

still no word on where our next stop will be

its proving difficult to find a logical & easy (translate: fast & cheap) spot to get to from rome

then get to amsterdam for our final stop

we will keep you posted

we passed our half way point of the trip this weekend

it has been everything we expected and so much more

the sights and sounds are truely unique

nothing can compare to this in the states

we feel truely blessed to have been able to take this trip

and share it will you all

we have arrived

in the italian reviera

here is the little town we are staying in

we already had a nice half day at the beach

and a happy hour with the best za we've ever had

nerd you would have truely enjoyed it



here is the view from our room

we're staying in some artist's guest house up on the hill

we have a great balcony

6 degree celsius

that was how cold the river was we rafted on yesterday

glacier fed i might add

lots of class three and some four (those were the fun ones)

here is cait falling out of the boat after a team photo


we were in full wet suits and helmets


our guide was from costa rica

named carlos

who's brother runs a costaricaextreme.com

nice plug for them

rafters in our group were from canada, england and new zealand

such a great time

the river fed into one of the lakes that borders interlaken

we actually jumped into both the river and the lake

fulfilling cait's first wish when we got here

to swim in the bright blue water of lake brienz

after the full day of rafting we packed up for cinque terre

cait decided to lose her passport for about an hour

that was fun

as you can imagine

we found it

tried to find hostels in rome

and determine where we are going next

what a view

we just got back from a hike in the mountains

we took a train about an hour up the mountain to about 9000 feet

this is what awaited us


the views were amazing

hike was pretty difficult


walking on ridge line the entire time

very cool

last night we checked out the local clubs

met two cousins from belfast

traded lots of good stories

we've met folks from boston, texas, austrialia, england, berlin and ireland

everyone willing to share advice and stories

tonight will be a restful evening after two nights of staying out late

tomorrow we're going rafting

so far everywhere we've been things have been very expensive

and sad to report but interlaken has a hooters

really?

cait and i are openly soliciting ideas for where we should go after rome

we have about seven days before we have to be in holland

few more pics for ya'll

city center in interlaken

cait in a paris train station

flowers from the mountain

good bye paris, hello interlaken

we have left the land of crepes

onto the land of mountains

swizerland is absolutley geogrous

we stayed in bern last night

may have been the best night of the trip so far

not just because of the name

the city was dead

but we stayed up drinking with some random german bus driver

had great conversation

moved a little bit slower this morning

finally made it to interlaken

and everyone who recomended this place

thank you

we are so glad we made it here

today we just walked around, took pics

sorry no pics today, forgot the cord

met some guys from texas who recomened a few things to do while we are here

also got our reservations for monteresso and rome

paris day two and three

new internet cafe new photos

here is the sunset i mentioned in the last post

thursday night we grabbed some dinner and wine

slept until almost two on friday

it rained friday almost all day; finally broke around seven

we got our train tickets to bern for tommorrow

then grabbed some lunch on the way back to the hotel

our expierences have been much better than our first in regards to ordering food

we eventually made it down to the louve and effiel tower

we hiked our asses up to the second deck to get this shot of paris

here is cait and i on some bridge over the river

after, we took the metro home

had dinner in a little cafe by our hotel

bought a bottle of wine

and taught cait how to glay gin

today the sun was out all day

we made it to the arc

did some shopping

cait did i mean

went back to rest our weary feet

tonight is a boat ride on the river

then dinner

and pack for our trip to switzerland

couple other notes

we had our first crepes and they were amazing

paris is ginormus

not as many stray dogs as everyone said

and over half the shops are closed because they are on holiday

some streets are deserted

pretty crazy

two more pics...

city of lights

we have landed

plane was delayed two seperate times

door wouldnt seal and engine wouldnt start

almost twelve hours on the plane; scheduled for seven

plane ride was nice

minus old man winter in the row behind us listening to "shake it" so loud i thought he had a boombox on his lap

on demand movies should be on every plane

took off at 630pm msp time; landed at 934am paris time

forgive any typos but the keys are mixed up here

forgive qny typos but the keys qre ,ixed up here

the last sentence is typed using american key positions

back to the trip

three successful trains to reach our hotel

not bad for two rookies in france

joel would be so proud

as of now we have been up for almost 30 hours straight

needless to say we are tired

could not check in until 330

dropped off the bags and started to walk

got to the seine and notre dame

had some lunch where no one spoke english; interesting

it was cloudy and cool with off and on rain

we walked a lot

got lost a lot

finally checked into our hotel

tried to plan out the rest of our time here

we will be doing the big sights tomorrow

also buying our train tickets to switzerland for sunday

this internet cafe does not allow my camera to upload pics

so that will have to wait

i did get a great picture of the sun setting while we were over hudson bay

off to grab some dinner

some water

and some sleep

leaving on a jet plane

i will be back again... in about twenty days

our ride is coming in about forty five minutes

quincy always knows when the luggage comes out

one of us is leaving

her only deterrent is trying to sleep on our clothes we plan on wearing


has yet to work on keeping us home

out of office notice has been turned on

bills are paid

i think i am ready to go

next entry should be from paris

god speed

*RIP LeRoi Moore*
1961-2008

t minus one day

we leave less than 24 hours

started packing a little bit ago



hard to think of packing for three weeks

first round of packing successful, but heavy as hell

had to make cuts... books, long sleeves, liquids

and we've arrived at this




still probably around 40 pounds, dont have a scale

i hope my judging the weight by how many curls i can do with it will suffice

loaded up the old ipod with the latest dave concerts from alpine this year

tina bought me a few photography magazines to research cameras

i'll be taking photography lessons when i get home, as an early christmas present to myself

now off to watch the twins beat the a's

firsts

i'm nervous and excited

i think what i'm most nervous about is all of the firsts we'll experience

the first time we try to read a sign in french

the first time we navigate through the subway system

the first time we check into a hotel

the first time we get lost

the first time we have to run to catch a train

the first time we have to pay for something in euros

the first time we find our way back

the first time we use an internet cafe

the first time a gypsy tries to sell me a cell phone (gilmore)

i'm excited about everything else

t minus two days

cait and I leave on wednesday for the great unknown

neither of us has ever been to europe before

sad to say but my sister who is 6 years my junior has spent two months in australia as part of an exchange program in high school

neither of us speak french, italian or any other language

we plan to spend time in paris, switzerland and cinque terre during our first ten days or so
the second half of the trip has yet to be planned and we will likely take it as we go

possibly spending some time in rome, prague or germany

i hear coldplay is playing in germany on september second

tonight is the farewell dinner at our parents house

tomorrow is the last full day of work, pretty much checked out already

hard to concentrate with all things we are trying to get organize and all the advice we have been getting from everyone

great stuff

just a lot to take in regarding trains, tipping, pick pockets, hostels, things to do…

first try at blogging

for the momentus occasion of my first trip to europe i'd thought i'd try this blogging thing out...